Passerines on the move!

The last few days have seen a real rise in migrant passerines, coinciding with a period of slightly more unsettled weather.

My birding has once again been largely confined to daily visits to Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury, around my work commitments. Last week was hard work with nothing too new on the move, however from Saturday onwards, new migrants have arrived thick and fast!

On Saturday (12/09), a brief visit revealed a lovely juvenile Black Tern busily feeding over the reservoir in the stunning evening sunlight. I don't often find my Canon SX50 too limiting, however I did wish on this occasion to have a nice SLR in my hands as the views and light were fabulous!

Chats have been the theme within the last couple of days at Grimsbury with singles of Wheatear & Whinchat in the torrential rain yesterday, while today I was chuffed to find a nice male Redstart flicking around the hawthorns SW corner. Gareth Blockley also discovered a couple more Wheatears today too.

Yesterday saw quite a fall of Chiffchaff, with double figures present. Warblers are about but in pretty low numbers. Willow Warblers are trickling through in ones & twos, but certainly the majority appear to have gone. Blackcaps are about in small numbers, gorging on the abundance of berries available. Spotted Flycatchers are also still to be seen and have been present nearly daily in varying numbers for the past 3 weeks. Today there were two catching insects in the pines at the southern end of the wood at Grimsbury.

Siskins and Swallows have featured heavily too in the last few days. Nationally, Siskins are on the move in unusually big numbers, due to what appears to have been a particularly good breeding season on the continent. A group of three went over yesterday while 8-9 this morning. Swallows have had a real push southwards this evening with at least 50 birds dropping out of the sky this evening, followed later on by a minimum of 110 low, purposefully south too. House Martins have also been through in small numbers, with 3 lingering Sand Martins yesterday.

I'm off to Cornwall for a week at the weekend. With the remnants of Hurricane Henri heading in from the west, I've got my fingers crossed for something juicy!

Borough Hill in the rain

Typically, bank holiday Monday (31/08) was a complete washout weather-wise, but having the day to myself, I was determined to get out and do some birding.

I drove over to Borough Hill, Daventry in the hope of some migrants. The conditions, needless to say were f**kin shocking but thankfully I was rewarded for my efforts with an initial flyover Tree Pipit heading south. Towards the centre of the hill another Tree Pipit again went south calling however only heard and not seen this time. I soon got onto a Whinchat followed soon after by another 5 which was nice.

Further north is a hedgerow going from west to east across the hill. This, I've always found to be great for migrants. Despite the conditions, persistance produced a group of 4 Spotted Flycatcher, 2-3 Willow Warbler, a Blackcap, a possible very brief Redstart and another 2 Tree Pipit that landed in the hedge for a short while before continuing south.

No hoped for Wryneck, Pied Fly etc, and in hindsight, heading to one of the highest points in Northants on a day of torrential rain seems like madness but, I was happy despite the soaking wet feet I now had to endure! 

Migration in full swing

Autumn migration is now in full swing and locally, the past 2-3 weeks has been really great! With my last 3 weekends taken up by a couple of weddings and a weekend away with friends, most of my birding has been fitting patching Grimsbury Reservoir around work.

There's been quite a few highlights, but the best has probably been the sighting of a migrating Osprey cruising south on the sunny morning of 25/08 affording great views.

One of the other main highlights was the discovery initially of 3 adult Black Terns on 14/08, that later became an impressive 5! Having found them on my lunch break in rather gloomy and damp conditions, they stayed for much of the day before departing sometime during the evening. This appeared to be part of a decent passage UK-wide and a great record for Grimsbury! 

Waders notoriously don't tend to stick at Grimsbury and you just have to be lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time! Both Gareth Blockley and I are in fact on a bit of a roll, and paying the site a visit in the evenings has been rather productive. We've been heading down mainly to check the good numbers of gulls for scarcities, however this has led to late evening year ticks of 3 separate sightings of Greenshank, a Green Sandpiper, a Ringed Plover and both yesterday and tonight, a lovely Black Tailed Godwit. Long may this run continue!

Other recent wader sightings for me have been several Common Sandpiper, a juv LRP and a flyover Lapwing.

Migrant passerines have been in good supply too with a couple of Wheatear, quite a few Spotted Flycatcher and good numbers of common Warbler species including good recent numbers of Willow Warbler and several Lesser Whitethroat. Yellow Wagtails too, have been going over fairly regularly in small numbers, but 24/08 was a little more exceptional with flock of 10 and 5 through. Swallows, House & Sand Martins are still trickling through, while Swifts are still about with 8 seen yesterday evening (01/09) over the reservoir.

The nearby Borrow Pit appears to be a bit of a passerine migrant trap with a regular juvenile Wheatear for the last 2 weeks, as well as a long-staying trio of Whinchats (still there this evening). Gareth and I also found a lovely pair of grounded Tree Pipit there on 30/08, a nice record for the area.

Another recent highlight has been really good numbers of gulls gathering in the evenings before going to roost on the nearby warehouse roofs. This has included several adult & Juvenile Yellow-Legged Gull amongst the several hundred Lesser Black Backed, Black-Headed and the odd Herring & Common Gull.

Other notable sightings have included a couple of flyover Siskins, a couple of Peregrine sightings and sporadic appearances of a Ring-Necked Parakeet!

August has kicked off autumn migration in pretty impressive style. But what will September bring??

The last of this years butterflying

Early August saw pretty much the last of my searching for butterflies locally, with me being largely busy for the following few weeks. My last couple of outings were of course to Bucknell Wood, near Silverstone and were very enjoyable and memorable!

A visit on Saturday 08/08 in particular, was very memorable. In glorious sunshine, I managed to see one of the latest ever sightings of Purple Emperor in Northants. I presume it was a female due to it's large size and lack of purple flash. It was a fabulous sight as it effortlessly cruised over my head and slowly cruised round some nearby oaks. In the binoculars, you could make out a fair old chunk missing out of one of it's wings but overall, it was in pretty good nick. Sadly no photos but do you know what, sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the moment rather than worrying too much about getting a photo!

That day was also memorable for the numbers of Valezina Silver-Washed Fritillary with a total of FIVE seen! The one below was photographed a few days later on 12/08.

Silver-Washed numbers too were in good health however the majority were looking decidedly tatty!

Finally on the 10/08, several hairstreak were for once to be seen low down, nectaring and I managed to see 2 each of White-Letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak.

I also managed to see my first ever second brood Wood Whites, with 1 on 06/08 & 2 on 12/08. These hopefully signify that the species is in relatively good health locally.

Finally, there have been awesome numbers of fresh Large White, Brimstones & Peacocks, together with fresh second brood Common Blue, Brown Argus (my first for the site) and a couple of nice Painted Lady too!

So now with the butterfly season drawing gradually to a close, on reflection it's been a great 2015 with a few nice discoveries and a handful of new species for me too. All I can say is bring on 2016!